A stylistic analysis on linguistic features of news titles in the Jakarta Post on August 19, 2007 issue - USD Repository

  A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF NEWS TITLES IN THE JAKARTA POST ON AUGUST 19, 2007 ISSUE AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

NANI TATO KAMBA

  Student Number: 034214114

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2007

  A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF NEWS TITLES IN THE JAKARTA POST ON AUGUST 19, 2007 ISSUE AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

NANI TATO KAMBA

  Student Number: 034214114

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2007

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES

OF NEWS TITLES IN THE JAKARTA POST

ON AUGUST 19, 2007 ISSUE

  By

NANI TATO KAMBA

  Student Number: 034214114 Approved by

  Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. November 24, 2007 Advisor Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum November 24, 2007 Co-Advisor Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum.

  Co-Advisor

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES

OF NEWS TITLES IN THE JAKARTA POST

ON AUGUST 19, 2007 ISSUE

  By

NANI TATO KAMBA

  Student Number: 034214114 Defended before the Board of Examiners on November , 2007 and Declared Acceptable

  

BOARD EXAMINERS

Name Signature Chairman : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A.

  Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum Member : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A.

  Member : Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum Member : J. Harris Hermansyah S, S.S., M.Hum

  Yogyakarta, November 24, 2007 Faculty of Letters

  Sanata Dharma University Dean Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum.

  This thesis is dedicated to: Jesus, my Lord, my Savior, my Father, and my Friend My beloved parents My beloved sister and brothers

  My friends My Alma Mater

  

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  In finishing this thesis, the writer should pass many processes and she realizes that they could not be passed if there were no help from others. How glad she is when this thesis was finished and she expresses her gratitude to all people that directly or indirectly have given a hand during her study in college for four and a half year even in finishing her undergraduate thesis. She would like to thank:

  

1. Her adoring Father and friend, Jesus Christ, who allows her to experience many

difficult processes in difficult time. However, in those processes and time, He never leaves her alone. He always walks with her and controls her life. She thanks for His blessing and all problems and joy that He allows to happen in her life.

  

2. Her advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd., M.A., for his time in guiding her in all

processes of finishing this thesis, for his advice in making this thesis better and researchable.

  

3. Her co-advisor, Miss. Adventina Putranti, S.S., M. Hum., for giving her some

suggestions in this thesis.

  4. Mr. Tatang Iskarna, S.S., M.Hum., for lending her some reference books.

  

5. Her beloved parents (Yohanis Tato Kamba and Hasyah Djabbar), sister (Neny),

and brothers (Rano and Andrew), for their love, prayers, care, and support that make her strong to face many challenges and problems, and motivate her to finish her study.

  

6. Her relatives in Yogyakarta, Kak Ita, Mas Iwan, Chandra, David, and Yehuda, for

all support and prayers during her study in Yogyakarta.

  

7. Her little angel, for all supports and prayers that always comes in time and for

coloring her life. “You are the best!” Ratna and family, for their support, prayers, care, and kindness in giving a place to 8. take shelter for several months in the process of finishing this thesis.

  

9. Her friends in Gereja KIBAID Yogyakarta and Mr. Yerahmel B, S.Th, for their

prayers, support, and advice in every time.

  10. Her friend Sinta, for being her best friend for nearly 14 years.

  

11. Her friends in the 2003 English Letters especially Sastra Mungil Community.

  Thanks to Ketut, Leni, Inop, Mey, Maya, Ike, Sondang, Dewi, Afrill, Yuni, Agnes, Intan, Cisil, Cita, Clara, Wahyu, Abit, Tio, Demus, Muji, Daud, Mando, Dean, Yacko, and Bigar Nani Tato Kamba.

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ....................................................................................................

  2. Linguistic Features of News Titles....................................... 13

  1. Graphology .......................................................................... 65 2. Phonology...........................................................................

  B. The Effects of Linguistic Features to the Texts .............................. 65

  4. Lexis .................................................................................... 60

  3. Grammar.............................................................................. 54

  2. Phonology............................................................................ 49

  1. Graphology .......................................................................... 35

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 30

A. Object of the Study.......................................................................... 30 B. Approach of the Study..................................................................... 31 C. Method of the Study ........................................................................ 31

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ............................................................................. 34

A. The Linguistic Features and the Most Common Linguistic Features in News Titles.................................................................. 34

  B. Theoretical Framework .................................................................... 29

  d. Lexis ......................................................................... 26

  c. Grammar ................................................................... 21

  b. Phonology ................................................................. 20

  a. Graphology ............................................................... 13

  b. The Characteristics of News Title ............................ 10

  i

  9

  9 a. The Function of News Title ......................................

  9 1. The News Title .....................................................................

  9 A. Review of Related Theories .............................................................

  6 CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL REVIEW ....................................................

  5 E. Definition of Terms ..........................................................................

  5 D. Research Benefit...............................................................................

  4 C. Objectives of the Study.....................................................................

  1 B. Problem Formulation ........................................................................

  1 A. Background of the Study ..................................................................

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................. vii

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... ix

ABSTRAK ......................................................................................................... x

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................

  v ACKNOWLEDMENTS ................................................................................... vi

  

APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE..................................................................................... iii

MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................................. iv

DEDICATION PAGE.......................................................................................

  68

  3. Grammar.............................................................................. 69

  4. Lexis .................................................................................... 70

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION........................................................................ 72

BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 74

APENDICES...................................................................................................... 76

Appendix 1 ............................................................................................. 76 Appendix 2 ............................................................................................. 78 Appendix 3 ............................................................................................. 80 Appendix 4 ............................................................................................. 81 Appendix 5 ............................................................................................. 82

  

ABSTRACT

  NANI TATO KAMBA. A Stylistic Analysis on Linguistic Features of News

  

Titles in The Jakarta Post on August 19, 2007 Issue. Yogyakarta: Department of

English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University 2007.

  There are many languages based on stylistic features. The most influential language is news media language. It is a language that is used in mass media. Newspaper is one of mass media to deliver news. Before reading the news the readers scan the title to choose which news that is going to be read. This title has a big role in giving an idea about the news and it has its own linguistic features that is different from literary text titles. The writer chose the news titles in The Jakarta

  

Post , the famous international newspaper in Indonesia, issued on August 19, 2007

  to be analyzed. Analyzing these linguistic features in the news title can improve our knowledge about the news media language, its style, and help us predict the effect to the text.

  In this thesis the linguistic features in news titles were analyzed. There are two problems that were formulated by the writer. First is to find out the linguistic features and the most common linguistic features of news titles in The Jakarta

  

Post on August 19, 2007 issue, second is to find out the effects of these linguistic

features to the texts.

  In the analysis, the approach that was used is stylistics which is the most appropriate approach because it studies linguistic features. The writer did several steps in analyzing the data. First, the data was collected from The Jakarta Post issued on August 19, 2007 and classified based on its news column. Second, the writer found out the linguistic features that news titles have based on their graphological features, phonological features, grammatical features, and lexical features. After that, the writer counted the total number of news titles having those features to determine the most common features that occur in news titles. Lastly, the writer found out the effects that the linguistic features have when they are applied in the news titles.

  From the analysis, the writer concluded that the news titles in The Jakarta

  

Post are written in various size of font and in three kinds of typefaces and two

  kinds of tenses, some of them use punctuation and ellipsis, and the number of lines and columns that are used are different. Commonly, news titles are written in the form of sentence and active voice, they are in present tense, the size of font is 36 point in 2 lines, the length is 94 mm, and the typeface is Minion Pro-Semi-

  

Bold . The linguistic features affect the news titles; the graphological features

  affect the ease of reading, the phonological features give a rhythm to the text that make it memorable, the grammatical features make the news titles clearly understood, and the lexical features help in economizing space-use and beautify the news titles.

  

ABSTRAK

  NANI TATO KAMBA. A Stylistic Analysis on Linguistic Features of News

  

Titles in The Jakarta Post on August 19, 2007 Issue. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra

Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007.

  Berdasarkan stilistika, ada beberapa macam bahasa. Yang paling berpengaruh adalah bahasa media berita. Bahasa ini adalah bahasa yang digunakan dalam media massa. Koran adalah salah satu media massa yang menyebarkan berita. Sebelum membaca isi berita, pembaca membaca judul berita secara sepintas untuk memilih berita mana yang akan dibaca. Judul berita ini mempunyai peranan besar dalam memberikan gagasan tentang isi berita dan judul berita ini mempunyai karakteristik bahasa tersendiri yang berbeda dengan judul- judul karya sastra. Penulis memilih judul-judul berita di koran The Jakarta Post, koran internasional yang terkenal di Indonesia, yang diterbitkan pada tanggal 19

  

Agustus 2007 untuk dianalisa. Menganalisa karakteristik bahasa dalam judul

  berita dapat menambah pengetahuan kita tentang bahasa media berita, gaya penulisannya, dan membantu kita untuk memprediksi pengaruhnya pada teks.

  Karakteristik bahasa dianalisis dalam skripsi ini. Ada dua masalah yang diteliti oleh penulis. Pertama adalah menentukan karakteristik bahasa apa saja yang dimiliki judul berita The Jakarta Post yang diterbitkan pada tanggal 19

  

Agustus 2007 dan menentukan karakteristik bahasa yang paling banyak digunakan

  oleh judul berita, yang kedua adalah menentukan pengaruh yang ditimbulkan karakteristik bahasa itu pada teks.

  Dalam analisis ini, pendekatan yang digunakan adalah stilistika yang merupakan pendekatan yang paling tepat karena stilistika mempelajari karakteristik bahasa. Penulis melakukan beberapa tahap dalam menganalisa data. Pertama, data dikumpulkan dari The Jakarta Post yang diterbitkan pada tanggal

19 Agustus 2007 dan diklasifikasikan berdasarkan kolom beritanya. Kedua,

  penulis menentukan karakteristik bahasa yang dimiliki judul berita berdasarkan karakteristik grafika, fonologi, gramatikal, dan leksisnya. Setelah itu, penulis menghitung jumlah judul berita yang memiliki krakteristik-karakteristik tersebut untuk menentukan karakteristik bahasa yang paling banyak muncul dalam judul berita. Terakhir, penulis menentukan pengaruh karakteristik bahasa tersebut saat digunakan dalam judul berita.

  Dari analisis ini, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa judul berita dalam The

  

Jakarta Post ditulis dalam berbagai ukuran huruf dan dalam tiga macam bentuk

  huruf dan dalam dua macam tense, beberapa judul berita menggunakan tanda baca dan elipsis, dan jumlah baris dan kolom yang digunakan berbeda. Pada umumnya, judul berita ditulis dalam bentuk kalimat aktif, dalam bentuk present tense, ukuran hurufnya 36 pt dalam 2 baris, panjangnya 94 mm, dan model huruf yang digunakan adalah Minion Pro-Semi-Bold. Karakteristik bahasa berpengaruh pada judul berita; karakteristik grafika berpengaruh pada kemudahan pembacaan, karakteristik fonologi memberi irama pada teks yang membuat teks itu mudah diingat, karakteristik gramatikal membuat kita mengerti judul berita dengan jelas, dan karakteristik leksisnya membantu dalam menghemat penggunaan ruang dan membuat judul berita itu indah.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study In this world, we live with other people and we need to communicate with

  them. To communicate with other people, we use language. Language cannot be separated from human life.

  Based on stylistic features, there are many kinds of language variety. Related to occupational groups, there are religious language, scientific language, news media language, etc. These languages are “taken up as we begin to work and put down as we end it” (Crystal, 1994: 370). Moreover, those languages have their own linguistic features that make them lexically and grammatically different.

  News media language is the most influential language for people because what is written in, for example; newspapers, is the most believable language for people although the use of language is sometimes wrong or it does not follow the rule of language. In Dari Katabelece sampai Kakus published by Penerbit Buku Kompas, it is said that “idioms, new words, and the utterance grow and come from mass media” (Nuradji et al, 2003: xiv, translated by the writer). Also, “mass media is a communication media that is very influential in the development of language” (2003: xxi).

  Generally, communication is identical with the relationship, message exchange, and understanding. There are two types of communication, namely, direct and indirect communication. When we are talking to other people or having a conversation on one issue which involves at least two persons, it is called as a direct communication. When we communicate using media such as newspaper, television, letter which deliver messages to the receivers, we use indirect communication.

  One of examples of indirect communication tool is the newspaper. Every day many people read a newspaper. Newspapers provide not only news but also comments, analysis, advertisements, and entertainment.

  The term newspaper suggests that the content of newspaper will be primarily devoted to the news of the day, and some analysis and comment on this news. Newspapers however contain a range of items: news, comment, and analysis, advertising, entertainment. (Reah, 2002: 2)

  Most nations have at least one newspaper that circulates throughout the whole country: in Indonesia, a national newspaper like Kompas, as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city or region, like Kedaulatan Rakyat. There is also an international newspaper, like The Jakarta Post.

  The newspaper is one of mass media to deliver news to the readers. Today, there are many sources of news that provide audio-visual service which a newspaper does not have. Epstein in his book, News from Nowhere, has conducted severals surveys, and, “according to public opinion surveys, the public now relies on television as its major source of news” (Epstein, 1974: xv). However, there are still many people who read newspaper although they have radio and television that can give them actual news every hour. A newspaper can be brought everywhere and can be read everywhere people want to, that is one reason why there are still many people like to read a newspaper. Besides, the newspaper provides not only news but also comments, analysis, advertisements, and entertainment.

  Reah defines newspapers as “ephemeral text, that is, they are intended only for the day they are delivering news” (Reah, 2002: 13), so it can be said that a newspaper is a medium to spread news for a day. “News is information of recent events that are of interest to a sufficiently large group, or that may affect the lives of sufficiency large group” (Reah, 2002: 4). News or information provides the reader an enormous amount of information in very short sentences.

  In addition, people select which news that is going to be read by reading the news title first. Not all of the news in a newspaper are read by the readers.

  They read the news that makes them curious and they search the news that they want to know by reading the title first. From these facts the writer can make a preliminary assumption that the linguistic features of news title have a big influence for the quality of the news.

  A news title has its own linguistic features that make it special. The linguistic features that are meant here are divided into four main parts namely, graphological, phonological, grammatical, and lexical features. These features are applied to the news titles to give several effects.

  A journalist, who is so closed to the news in newspapers, should have skills in making interesting, actual, and original news. Journalist uses some linguistic features in making news titles that are meant to several importances. In second edition of The Mass Media and Modern Society, Fellows said that there are many newspapers rely on news titles not on the content of news, to attract reader. This practice applies commercial trick that cannot be approved. The reader will become accustomed to read news titles only and it will not be effective (Rivers, Peterson, and Jensen, 2004: 329-330).

  However, a news title has a big effect to the quality of the news. A good news title will be easily remembered by the reader and can attract people’s attention. For example, there are some columns in newspapers that sometimes people never read because they are not interested in those topics. Nonetheless, actually, the way the newspaperman or newspaperwoman forms the title can persuade people to read the news in those columns. From that fact, it is interesting and challenging to observe the linguistic features of news’s title which make the news titles special.

  In this study, the writer uses The Jakarta Post for the source of the data.

  

The Jakarta Post is the only popular international newspaper from Indonesia

  accessed on February 23, 2007). The Jakarta Post has gained many readers time to time. Moreover, it is easy to find this newspaper because it is in every where, like at the bookshop, circle K, newspapers distributors, etc.

B. Problem Formulation

  In this research the writer has formulated two problems, they are:

  1. What are the linguistic features and the most common linguistic features of news titles in The Jakarta Post on August 19, 2007 issue?

  2. What are the effects of these features to the texts?

  C. Objectives of the Study

  There are two objectives of study in this paper. First is to find out the linguistic features of news titles and the most common linguistic features of news titles in The Jakarta Post on August 19, 2007 issue. Based on the data, the writer will find out some of linguistic features that are used in news titles and there will be some levels of the linguistic features that are found in this data based on their quantity. The linguistic features will give some effects to the news titles.

  Therefore, the last objective study in this paper is to find out the effects of these features to the texts.

  D. Research Benefit

  Since this research is about news media language which is the most influential language for people so it has some benefits to the people commonly, not only to the student of English Letters. This research can show to the people when and why the linguistic features are used in news titles. It also can improve people’s knowledge about news media language that is very influential in development of language and show the styles of news media language that is different from others language. Moreover, from this research we can predict the effects of the linguistic features to the news titles.

E. Definition of Terms

  There are five key terms that will be used in this analysis to give the reader ideas about what are going to be analyzed and to avoid misunderstanding on certain terms, they are:

  1. Stylistics is “the study of varieties of accessed on February 23, 2007).

  For example, the language of etc., or the language of a period in time, all belong in a particular situation. In other words, they all have ‘place’.

  Barry in his book, An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, defines stylistics as “a critical approach which uses the methods and findings of the science of language in the analysis of literary texts” (2002: 203).

  The aim of using stylistic to analyze the linguistic feature is to show how the technical linguistic features of the news titles, such as grammatical structure, contribute to overall meanings and effects. Therefore, stylistic can be defined as the study of language in defining linguistic feature of particular text in context and the effect of particular linguistic features to the text.

  2. In Stylistics written by Peter Verdonk, linguistic feature is defined as particular elements that are found in particular text type or context (2002: 6).

  Moreover, linguistic feature means “a particular characteristic of language which influences the grammatical items, shape, structure of the discourse, and purpose or function of a piece of writing that distinguishes one type of writing from one another” (Nunan, 1999: 280).

  Linguistic features are applied in particular text to give the text its own characteristics that can distinguish it from another text. It can be in its typography, grammar, sound, etc.

  3. In Webster dictionary title is defined as “the name of poem, essay, chapter book, picture, statue, piece of music, etc. Reah defines news as “information of recent events that are of interest to a sufficiently large group, or that may affect the lives of sufficiency large group” (Reah, 2002: 4).

  Therefore, news title is the name of information of recent events that are of interest to a sufficiently large group, or that may affect the lives of sufficiency large group. Moreover, the term ‘news title’ refers to the words in the leading position of news that will be read first by the reader because it is attractive in its form.

4. Issue is “all copies of the day’s paper and its edition” (Keeble, 2001: 248). In this study the writer chose the news titles in Sunday issue as the data.

  “A daily newspaper is issued every day, often with the exception of Sundays and some Saturday, and where they exist Sunday, editions of daily newspapers tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and advertising inserts, and cost more. Typically, the vast majority of these newspapers' reporters work Monday to Friday, so the Sunday and Monday editions largely depend on content done in advance or content that is syndicated.” (accessed on February 23, 2007).

  5. There are several meanings of the word effect in Verdonk’s books, Stylistics;

  effect is “the sense that is given by the overall significance of a text” (2002:

  5), effect is “the reader’s rising interest or emotion of stylistic relevance”

  (2002: 6), and effect is “interpretation and intention of the reader toward particular verbal features” (2002: 9) Therefore, effect is the impression that comes from particular text because of the linguistic features that are applied. The reader’s interpretation and intention that appear because of the text can be different and these are called the effects.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW This chapter covers two parts; review of related theories and theoretical

  framework. The first part contains the review of some theories that will be applied in analyzing the object of study. The last or the second part is the theoretical framework that is concerning with the contribution of the theories in answering the problems of the study and the way they are applied in answering the problems in this study.

A. Review of Related Theories

1. The News Title

  A news title is the name or the head of news. Most of news titles are written in the form of sentence. It is different from novels whose titles commonly are written in the form of phrases. These news titles have a job to advertise their stories or news.

a. The Functions of News Title

  In Experiences in Journalism, it is said that newspaper heads advertise their stories and promote rapid reading. The heads or news titles should summarize the main points of a story. It is aimed to give the reader an idea about the content of the news because the readers always scan the news titles to decide which news that they are going to read. The news titles also reflect the tone of their news, means that if the story is humorous, the headline should suggest the fact; if the story is tragic, the news title should be tragic in tone (Mulligan, 1943: 232).

b. The Characteristics of News Title

  The news titles have a big role in attracting the reader to read the news even to give the reader an idea about the news. They are different from other literary text titles like poems or novels because they are written in different functions from literary text. The titles in literary text are generally written for the beauty of the work so that phrases are commonly used whereas the news titles written to bring main points of news and advertise it. Here are some characteristics of news titles as written in Experiences in Journalism (Mulligan, 1943: 232-244):

i. Using short and sharp words

  As the news titles should give a vivid summary of the facts in its story so short and sharp words are used as much as possible in preference to longer synonyms. e.g. Police vow to speed up probe into Munir’s murder The word murder has two synonyms namely, assassination and kill. However, the word murder is used because it is shorter than the word assignation and it is a common word and commonly used.

ii. Articles are commonly omitted

  Different from the titles of novels or poems, articles in most news titles are omitted to shorten them. e.g. 1) Sutiyoso talks trash at recycling plant launch The complete sentence: Sutiyoso talks trash at the recycling plant launch 2) Turkish government condemns army threat on poll dispute The complete sentence: Turkish government condemns an army threat on poll dispute

  (The Jakarta Post, April 30, 2007)

iii. Verbs are essential

  The news titles that do not contain verbs, either expressed or clearly understood, are really not heads at all but mere labels. Verbs are used to make a complete statement. e.g. Japan’s PM begins Three-day visit (sentence form with verb begin)

  PM Abe’s trust mission (noun phrase form without verb)

  (The Jakarta Post, August 20, 2007) iv. Using present tense for past event

  The use of historic present or the present tense used for referring past event is commonly used in news titles and it is used as vivid as possible. e.g. Donald takes one-shot lead into last round of Byron Nelson (The title is in

  Present Tense) England’s Luke Donald maintained his one-shot lead in the 6.3 million- dollar Byron Nelson Championship on Saturday with a three-under 67 in the third round. (The first sentence in the first paragraph that is represented directly in the title is in Past Tense)

  (The Jakarta Post, April 30, 2007)

  v. Using active voice than passive voice

  The active voice in a news title unless the passive is necessary to get the main idea of news into the opening words of the news title. However, when it is necessary to use the passive voice, to be is omitted before verb. e.g. Fergie hails his ‘have –a-go’’ heroes (active voice)

  Bike courier robbed in North Jakarta (passive voice) (The Jakarta Post, April 30, 2007)

  vi. Using positive statements

  A positive statement is more emphatic than a negative statement which is also weak. e.g. Senior debate postponed is better than Senior debate will not be held Friday.

  vii. Using familiar or common abbreviation or acronyms

  The abbreviations or acronyms that are used in the news titles are the common abbreviations that are generally known by all readers so that the readers will understand them at once when read them. e.g. Jones Jr. beats Hanshaw in 12-round decision (Jr. for Junior)

  U.S. defies pressure to expand Blair’s Mideast mandate (U.S. for United State)

  (The Jakarta Post, July 16, 2007)

  viii. Using flush-left head

  Today the most common style of news titles is flush-left head. It is used for the news titles that use more than one line. In flush-left head each line starts flush at left of the column, with no indentation. e.g.

  Poor sanitation Poor sanitation

  Poor sanitation causes return of causes return of causes return of diarrhea outbreak diarrhea outbreak diarrhea outbreak

  (a) (b) (c)

  Figure 1: The types of head: (a) Flush-left head, (b) Drop-line head,

(c) Pyramid head (the original form is (a) from The Jakarta Post,

July 16, 2007). ix. Often require punctuation

  Punctuation sometimes used to replace certain words or to give a stress to the title. For example, to separate two independent statements, a semicolon or a dash is used.

2. Linguistic Features of News Title

  Linguistic features are applied in particular text to give the text its own characteristics that can distinguish it from another text. It can be in its graphology, phonology, grammar, and lexis.

a. Graphology

  In A Dictionary of Stylistics, graphology is meant as the study of a grapheme, the smallest distinctive unit in the writing system of a language. The graphological features are size of print and capitalization in newspaper and advertising lay-outs; and different typefaces (Wales, 2001: 182-183).

i. Typography

  Typography is “system of letters” (Woods, 1987: 98). Marking copy with type specifications should cover a number of elements (Woods, 1987: 103-104):

  1) Type style or styles to be used for specific components of the copy, including body type, major and secondary headline type, subheads or running headlines, and quoted material. 2) Type point sizes for each of these components. 3) Column width of copy, headlines, or quoted material. 4) Leading or spacing between lines of text, paragraphs, or headlines and paragraphs.

  5) Indentations of text, headlines, and subheadlines.

  Sometimes it is confusing when we want to select the right typeface for a job, because literally thousands of styles and families of type are available. They are broken down into four general categories: roman (serif), sans serif, script, and ultrabold sans serif (Woods, 1987: 108).

  a.

  History book still not closed on Fujimori

b. History book still not closed on Fujimori c.

  History book still not closed on Fujimori d. History book still not closed on Fujimori

  Figure 2: Sample of four categories of type: (a) roman / serif; (b) sans serif; (c) script; (d) ultrabold sans serif.

  These typefaces are only the general categories. There are still many typefaces which are used for several importances. However, there are many typefaces that have too many indentation that make them difficult to read and with their 3-demension style. These typefaces are usually used for brochure and advertisement.

  b.

  a. Figure 3: Two kinds of typeface in 24 pt: (a) Inertia BRK; (b) Unicode 0024 In making news titles, there many typefaces that are provided and they should be chose to make the news titles more highlighted than the body. In

  

Printing and Production for Promotionals , it is said that “heads should be of

  similar or heavier weights than the body type, using boldface or even just a larger size version of the body type” (Woods, 1987: 108). The bigger the sizes of font the easier to read it. Therefore, the size of font shows the importance of the news. Because the big size of font that is used in news titles can be more attractive than the smaller one (see figure 4 that has been minimized for 41.4 %).

  b.

  a.

  c.

  d.

  

Figure 4: The news titles in various size and typeface: (a) Optima-Bold, 14 pt; (b)

Minion Pro-Semi-Bold, 58 pt; (c) Minion Pro-Semi-Bold, 30 pt; (d) Minion Pro-Semi-

Bold, 36 pt

ii. Punctuation

  “Punctuation is the action or system of dividing writing into sentences, phrases, etc by using special marks” (Hornby, 1995: 941). In Punctuation written by G.V. Carey (1957: vi), there are two main principles in use punctuation. First, the punctuation should serve the eye before the tongue and the ear, i.e. that it is concerned more with reading silently than with reading aloud. Therefore the best punctuation is based on the structure, or syntax, of the sentence, not on the need to pause for breath; the pause for effect is a different matter, of which punctuation must of course take account. The second principle is: subject to the demands of lucidity, the fewer stops the better.

  In writing there are many punctuation marks, such as full stop (.), question mark (?), comma (,), exclamation mark (!), quotation marks or inverted commas (“ “ or ‘ ’), semicolon (;), colon (:), dash (—) , hyphen (-), apostrophe (`), and brackets [( )].

  Here is the usage of punctuation marks based on the book Write Well written by Barli Bram (1995: 93-103).

  1. Full Stop or Period (.)

  a. It is often used to mark the end of initials or abbreviations; sometimes it is optional, as in: 1) Jones Jr. beats Hanshaw in 12-round decision 2) Asian financial crisis helped U.S. economic growth

  2. Question Mark (?)

  a. As its name suggests this function mainly to signal that a message or an utterance is in a direct question form.

  1) Is there a new Indonesian virus about? (The Jakarta Post, April 29, 2007) b. Although rarely, it can also be used to show doubt, to show something we are unsure about, as in: 1) Open space? Jakarta? Look inside and you’ll see (The Jakarta Post,

  April 30, 2007)

  3. Comma (,)

  a. We use commas to separate series of items from the same category, such as nouns, phrases, and clauses, as in: 1) BlackBerry 8707 v: Efficient, functional and friendly (The Jakarta

  Post , August 20, 2007)

  b. To add non-defining phrase or clause or comment clause to a sentence, we need the comma(s) too. See the below usage: 1) More TNT, detonators found after bomb blast

  17 2) Bosowa, Chinese firm star power project

  (The Jakarta Post, August 20, 2007)

  4. Exclamation Mark (!)

  This punctuation is useful to show strong emphasis, as in: 1) How delicious the soup is! 2) Do not cheat!

  5. Quotation Marks or Inverted Commas (“ “ or ‘ ’)

  a. As the terms implies, this kind of punctuation functions to mark quotation or others’ speech. The single mark pair (‘ ‘) is more common in British English. The combination of the two pairs is also possible. Here are a number of sample uses:

  1) “I don’t care,” he shouted angrily. 2) ‘If necessary,’ the editors stated, ‘we will edit your article.’

  b. In addition, quotation marks are used to give more attention to a certain word or term. They can also be used to show that a word in a certain context has a particular meaning, a meaning that is different from the common one (The single-quotation mark pair is the more common).

  1) ‘Cooper’ or ‘Copper’? The choice is yours (The Jakarta Post, April 29, 2007).

  6. Colon (:)

  a. We use this punctuation to introduce along list or a series or things. The colon is often preceded by the phrase in the following, as follows, or as

  in , to mention three examples, as in:

  1) The prefix in- meaning not can be found in the following: inexpensive, intolerable, and incurable.

  7. Dash (—)

  a. The function of the dash is to make a certain piece of information more highlighted or more dramatic, as in: 1) Do not forget — once again do not forget — to post the letter today 2) Now she wants to be free — to live her own life.

  b. A dash is also used to introduce additional details in order to make a previous piece of information clearer or more vivid. In this case, a dash is similar to that is, viz or namely. 1) I can recognize two of them — Pipin and Ririn.

  2) Indonesia lies between two oceans — the Pacific and the Indian Oceans

  8. Hyphen (-)

  a. The function of hyphen is to connect words in order to create or form words or new phrases.

  1) TNI troops keep the place in war-torn Lebanon (The Jakarta Post, August 20, 2007)

  9. Apostrophe (‘)

  a. In formal writing and in written dialogue, the apostrophe functions to indicate that one, or more than one, letter has been deleted. Quite often, the apostrophe represents the omitted letter. Since most of auxiliary verbs can be shortened, we use the apostrophe to realize the contracted auxiliaries which are usually combined with personal pronouns, as in: 1) How’s life? 2) She’s sent the message.

  b. The apostrophe can replace the letter o in not to form a contraction, as in: 1) “No, it isn’t,” answered Ouda shortly.

  2) Don’t stand so close to me! c. It is also used to mark possesion.

  1) Dewi’s niece 2) Boy’s toys

10. Ampersand

  Ampersand is the sign (&) meaning and that is often used in names of companies (Hornby 1995:37). e.g. Brown, Brown & Walkins

b. Phonology

  Phonology is “the study of the ways in which speech sounds form systems and patterns” (Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams, 2003: 273). The phonological knowledge gives us information how to combine sounds, which sounds should be at the beginning or at the end of a word, and which sounds can appear next to each other.

i. Alliteration

  Alliteration is “the repetition of an initial sound in words that follow each other” (Hicks, 1998: 62). Alliteration occurs in initial sounds of a word, it can be a consonant or a vowel which is repeated in a line of a poem or in a sentence or in a close succession.

  fish and physics sing a song of sixpence

  Alliteration like rhyme is used to show the beauty of language in a given context, or to unite words or concepts through a kind of repetition. Alliteration, like rhyme, can follow specific patterns. However, alliteration is less common than rhyme, but because it is less common, it can call our attention to a word or line in a poem that might not have the same emphasis otherwise.

  In Stylistics, written by Verdonk, it is said that alliteration pleases the ears of readers and the sense of rhythm, such as sound effects add to the attention- drawing aspect and memorability of the news titles (Verdonk, 2002: 5). In addition, A Dictionary of Stylistics, it is said that alliteration can be used for emphasis, and to aid memorability (Wales, 2001: 14).

ii. Rhyming Consonance

  In Exploring Poetry written by Frank Madden, consonance is defined as “repeated consonant sound” (2002: 70). It is horizontal rhymes; means that the repeated consonant sound is in one line or one sentence and at the end of words. It is not like rhyme that is in one stanza or vertical. e.g. short and smart

  struts and frets

c. Grammar